Wayne Thomas teachers get wet for ice bucket challenge

About 300 students at Wayne Thomas Elementary School in Highland Park screamed with glee as they their principal and teachers were doused with buckets of ice water Aug. 29.

“Part of our work here with you, part of our elementary early school years is to raise awareness about differences in people and hopefully sensitivities to the different challenges that people may experience,” Principal Maureen Deely told the crowd of excited students.

Deely’s words came just before several pupils from Northwood Junior High School dumped buckets on her, fifth-grade teacher Jake Wietzema, art teacher Amanda Kurzawski, physical education teacher Dennis Arensen and five other staff members on the blacktop of the school playground.

She had accepted the nomination to take the “ice bucket challenge” to raise awareness for ALS from Indian Trail Elementary School Principal Craig Keer, as did Red Oak Elementary School Principal Jeanne Banas.

“We have a little elementary principal thing going on here,” Deely laughed, before nominating Northwood Junior High, Oak Terrace Elementary School and Green Bay Early Childhood Center to take the challenge next.

Liza Greenberg and Dani Dresdner, both 12-year-old seventh-grade students at Northwood, were glad to dump water on some former teachers.

“It was very fun. One of them was my fifth-grade teacher, Mr. Wietzema,” Greenberg said.

But the ice bucket challenge, which was a surprise for students that Friday afternoon, meant more to the school than simply buckets of ice, cold fun.

“We actually serve a lot of students with different disabilities, so we have a diversity awareness program here ­— so there is a focus on raising awareness and developing sensitivities to people that have differences,” Deely said.

For those who still do not know, the challenge has snowballed into a national phenomenon over the last month, with participants recording a video of themselves getting a bucket of ice water dumped on their heads, posting it online and nominating others to either take the challenge, too, or donate money to an ALS charity within 24 hours of their nomination. Many people have elected to do both.

ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) — better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease ­— is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that causees weakness and finally paralysis of muscles in the limbs and trunk, and those affecting speech and breathing.

The average life expectancy of someone with ALS ranges from two to five years after diagnosis, according to the ALS Association.

North Shore School District 112 educators spent the first two weeks of school icing themselves and their peers in an effort to raise funds and awareness for ALS.

Superintendent Michael Bregy and the central office administrators took the Ice Bucket Challenge in front of the Administrative Offices building at 1936 Green Bay Road in Highland Park on Sept. 2.

Deely said that Wayne Thomas Elementary School was donating money to an ALS charity, in addition to getting doused with ice water. The funds raised were already into the hundreds by that afternoon, she added.